Rachel is a junior majoring in management science in Lyle School of Engineering, with a minor in business administration in Cox School of Business. During spring 2013, she is studying in Perth with SMU-in-Australia and is looking forward to exploring the country.

Getting settled in Australia

My first two weeks in Australia have been a blast! I was able to do a little traveling before classes start. The second day I was here I went on a trip to the Yanchep National Park with six other Americans and three Australians. We stayed for three days: got a surfing lesson, saw koalas, and learned to throw a boomerang. It was a great introduction to Australia.

Now I am starting to get settled into my apartment. I am right next to campus, and across the street from me there is a shopping center with everything that I need. The public transportation in Perth is excellent, and everyone uses it. I have already used it twice to go to the beach.

Also, part of our orientation was a scavenger hunt, and to get around you had to use the public transportation. The scavenger hunt was a lot of fun and quite competitive. It started at Curtin University and ended at Fremantle, a large port not too far from Perth.

For the semester I will be studying at Curtin University, which has 36,000 undergrad students and is located about 20 minutes from downtown Perth. Overall, I am looking forward to the semester and can’t wait to spend more time at the beach.

One Response to Getting settled in Australia

Rachel, Sounds like you are all settled in and enjoying your wondeful adventure. Hope you are able to make contact with my friend Helen Janes as I know you will enjoy each other. Have fun, I have been to Fremantle too, beautiful beaches aren’t they? Will be seeing your Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow and we are going to work on the church library after the service and bet we end up going out for breakfast.
All the best Marge Stapleton